


Sweet Cheeks

by VoidLeviathan



Series: Coffee-Stained Books - Half Life AU [2]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware, Half-Life
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Awkward Flirting, Coffee Shops, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Half-Life but only the first game exists, M/M, They talk about HL1, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25039507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoidLeviathan/pseuds/VoidLeviathan
Summary: "You work here? Well I guess that explains the constant coffee smell.""Uh yeah that's right. Figures they left the guy rusty with ASL with you huh? What can I get for you sweet cheeks?"
Relationships: Barney Calhoun & Gordon Freeman, Barney Calhoun/Gordon Freeman, kind of - Relationship
Series: Coffee-Stained Books - Half Life AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756636
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	Sweet Cheeks

"Hey Barney! Bet you can't juggle five of the cup boxes at once."

"Is that a challenge Vance?"

"You bet your ass it is."

"Can we have  _ one day  _ without one of you daring the other to do something ridiculous?" Tommy softly laughed, taking a drink from his coffee and settling down to watch just how the challenge would play out.

"If we didn't try to give each other weird challenges would the Resonance Cafe even  _ be  _ the Resonance Cafe, Tommy?" Alyx was only joking, the cafe probably  _ would  _ be the same, but the idea of them not doing something fun every day made the job sound a little boring.

Barney didn't answer at all. Instead he was focused on his mission to juggle five boxes at one time.

Barney couldn't even juggle four things properly, let alone five, but alas the instinct to take on any challenge ran deep in his blood and he wasn't just going to let this one slide.

Or.

He wouldn't have.

But the cafe bell rang out and instantly the boxes smacked Barney directly in the face when he attempted to check who it was.

The laugh from the door was one Barney knew all too well now thanks to his countless days at 17 City Books. He hoped he was wrong and who he thought it was didn't just see him completely fail at trying to juggle.

"Is that  _ the  _ Gordon Freeman I see?" Alyx called out. She quickly hopped over the cafe counter, running up and giving Gordon the tightest hug she could manage. "Its been some time since we've seen you around! How are things? Everything at the bookstore all good?"

" _ I've been great actually, just got out of Grad School not that long ago. Oh and the bookstores perfectly fine, dads just calling about one of our orders missing and I thought I'd come get the coffee for once. _ "

"Well then welcome to the Resonance Cafe! We're always happy to see you around Gordon." Tommy chimed in, "If Barney's done messing around then you can go ahead and ask him to take your order."

"Hey! I wasn't messing around! I was taking on a very important challenge given to me by Alyx." Barney sent the cup boxes back on the counter and finally acknowledged that yes it was the cute bookstore guy here. The guy he tried so hard to keep his job hidden from in case it may have made things weird. That guy.

" _ You work here? Well I guess that explains the constant coffee smell. _ " 

"Uh yeah that's right. Figures they left the guy rusty with ASL with you huh? What can I get for you sweet cheeks?"

" _ My dad's usual order would be just a regular iced coffee. I personally prefer a uhm...the Xen." _

"Right! I'll have that ready for you in just a moment." Barney made his way to the back room and didn't bother to look back, mind only running a million miles a second thinking about something other than drinks.

"Sweet cheeks Calhoun? Really? Might as well ask the guy to marry me!"

Well...no point in dwelling on it now, there was drinks to be made.The regular iced coffee wasn't too difficult, but the Xen always required a ridiculous amount of macha. How'd the guy even drink the thing? Barney and Alyx made it as a joke due to its strong bitter nature never once suspecting people to actually like it.

He'd have to keep the preference in mind for later. Try offering Gordon other odd bitter drinks they made.

"Alright so just to be sure, iced coffee aaand this Xen right? Will that be all?"

" _ What? Oh! Yes that's all. Sorry I don't...I never actually usually come here. This place has a lot of interesting drink names… _ "

"Yeah the uh- the drink names are my fault."

"Oh Barney's a big nerd." Tommy chimed in, "He uhm- he named them after things in a game he likes!"

"Yeah some weird old game. He even owns a plushie from it, its hilarious." Alyx adds.

Barney rolled his eyes, "Stop bullying me they're fun! If the cafes called 'The Resonance Cafe' then why can't I have fun with drink names?"

"Because my dads not a huge nerd who named his cafe after some weird old game that didn't even get a sequel."

" _ Is uhm...I'm terribly sorry for interrupting but...are the drinks by chance named based on things in Half-Life? _ "

"See! Someone gets it!" Barney grinned, "And yes. A good portion of our drinks are named based on Half-Life things. I asked Eli if he was cool with it and he was totally fine long as we wouldn't have trouble over it."

" _ Thats so cool! That game was basically what took up a good portion of my childhood for a few months. Its actually how I- well it doesn't matter. Sorry for taking up so much of your time mister Calhoun." _

"Barney's just fine! And hey its no problem. Glad to see theres someone else around here with good taste in video games."

Gordon waved his goodbyes, gave Alyx one last parting hug, and left back to 17 City Books next-door. Barney honestly couldn't wait to get off work and possibly talk to him more about their similar interests.

"So Barney...Sweet cheeks?"

"Oh shut it, Vance!"

**Author's Note:**

> Yall know the drill, m' tumblrs enby-crow.   
> Been thinking a lot about this au   
> I and the gang have now put together a whole list of HL name based drinks


End file.
